On Thursday, a man traveling on snowmachine at around 2 am became stranded between Noovik and Kotzebue, a route used frequently in the winter but not traveled heavily at night. The temperature in the area had dropped into the teens.
Alaska State Troopers were notified that a person had activated an Apple iPhone Emergency SOS via satellite on an iPhone. Working with local search and rescue teams, the Apple Emergency Response Center, and the Northwest Arctic Borough Search and Rescue Coordinator, the rescue effort deployed four volunteer searchers to the Nimiuk Point area, to the exact GPS coordinates provided by the Apple Emergency Response Center. The stranded man was located and transported to Kotzebue by the volunteer search team. There were no injuries reported.
This may be the first successful search and rescue operation in nation using this new Apple iPhone feature, which is found on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models. The feature supposedly only works as far north as the 62 parallel, while Kotzebue and Noorvik are at latitude 69, 33 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
With iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models, you can use Emergency SOS via satellite to text emergency service agencies when you’re out of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage. You can also use the Find My app to share your location with people via satellite, Apple says.
Emergency SOS via satellite can help people connect with emergency services under exceptional circumstances when no other means of reaching emergency services are available. If they call or text emergency services and can’t connect because they are outside the range of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage, their iPhone tries to connect them via satellite to the help that they need.
When using a satellite connection, the experience is different than sending or receiving a message via cellular. In ideal conditions with a direct view of the sky and the horizon, a message might take 15 seconds to send, and over a minute to send under trees with light or medium foliage, Apple says. If the user is under heavy foliage or surrounded by other obstructions like mountains and buildings, he or she might not be able to connect to a satellite. Connection times can also be impacted by the surroundings, the length of the message, and the status and availability of the satellite network.
The emergency SOS via satellite feature is free for two years after the activation of iPhone 14 or iPhone 14 Pro.
Just make sure when you’re traveling from Noorvik to Kotzebue in the dead of winter that you have a fully charged phone, because you’ll need to get it from your pocket and keep it in the open so it can communicate with a satellite. That battery life is noticeably shorter in cold weather.
More about the SOS feature on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Proat this link.
Not everyone was socially distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in Alaska in March of 2020, even if they were working at home to avoid Covid.
According to the State Department of Health, syphilis rates in Alaska continued to escalate, just as they have nationwide. The department notes in its epidemiological update that Covid pandemic policies likely contributed to the explosion of the venereal disease in Alaska, “including reduced field services and decreased access to in-person clinical services.”
A 24% increase in syphilis cases in Alaska were reported in 2021, compared to the previous year. That totals 447 cases, with five of the cases in newborns.
Alaska Department of Health chart.
Of those cases, 336 — 73% — were in primary secondary or early latent stages, meaning the infected person had recently acquired the disease. Another 116 — 26% — were of unknown timeframe or had progressed to the late latent stage.
Syphilis is sexually transmitted and was spiking just as Covid was sweeping through Alaska and as more people were working from home in greater numbers than at any time in history. Syphilis is a bacterial infection usually spread by sexual contact. The symptoms start as painless sores on the genitals, rectum, or mouth, which heal. Then comes a rash. And then there are no symptoms until the final stage, which can occur years later, and can impact internal organs, brain, nerves, eyes, and heart. The disease is treated with penicillin.
The state’s syphilis outbreak started in 2018, with 114 cases reported that year. By the end of 2021, the cases had nearly quadrupled.
235 (53%) were male. 162 (69%) of those males self-identified as heterosexual, 52 (22%) self-identified as gay, and 7 (3%) self-identified as bisexual;
207 (47%) were female. 185 (89%) of those females were of reproductive age (15–44 years), 180 (87%) self-identified as heterosexual, 12 (6%) self-identified as bisexual, and 1 (1%) self-identified as lesbian or gay;
434 identified as cisgender. This means they identify with their biological gender. 4 identified as transgender and 4 were of unknown gender identity;
187 (42%) were in Alaska Native/American Indian, 111 (25%) were white persons, 57 (13%) were black persons, 55 (12%) were multiracial persons, 31 (7%) were hispanic/latino persons (of all races), 14 (3%) were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander persons, 10 (2%), were Asian persons, and 8 (2%) identified as other or unknown race;
394 (89%) were residents of urban communities such as Anchorage, Mat-Su, Juneau, and Fairbanks;
The age range was 16–70 years (52% were younger than 35 years);
128 also had another sexually transmitted disease as well: 109 (85%) were simultaneously infected with with chlamydia or gonorrhea; 17 (13%) were co-infected with HIV, and 2 (2%) were co-infected with HIV and chlamydia or gonorrhea;
126 (29%) were identified as experiencing homelessness or were unstably housed.
Also notable is that roughly half of the 2021 cases were in women, and nearly 90% of those women were of reproductive age (5 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2021).
Racial/ethnic disparities persist in this epidemic, the department reports and drug use is a factor, specifically heroin/meth.
The CDC says that nationally the majority of reported male primary and secondary syphilis cases where the gender of of a sex partner is known are among men who have sex with men.
“Once nearly eliminated in the U.S., syphilis is increasing, especially among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men,” the CDC reports.
Syphilis cases are also continuing to rise nationally. Factors contributing to the national epidemic are multifold, including substance use, poverty, stigma, and unstable housing, which can reduce access to STI prevention and care.
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is pressing Apple CEO Tim Cook about his relationship with China and Apple’s “speech control” policies in the United States.
“I write regarding Apple’s ongoing collaboration with the totalitarian Chinese government,” Hawley wrote in a letter sent to Cook on Tuesday. “Your continued dependency on Chinese labor not only undermines the interests of the American economy and its workers, but has once again led your company to crack down on speech at the Chinese Communist Party’s behest. Apple’s activities in China are unconscionable and present substantial material risks to your stakeholders.”
Online videos show protesters in China rallying against the Chinese Communist Party and its strict Covid-19 policies that include detainment camps for the infected.
“I urge you to take meaningful steps to end operations in China and to reshore production to the United States,” Hawley wrote. “Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Chinese Communist Party has subjected the Chinese people to draconian public health measures. During the past week, dissatisfaction with the nation’s so-called zero-COVID policy came to a head: from Beijing to Shanghai and Urumqi, citizens took to the streets to protest and voice their dissent. This included demonstrations at a Foxconn factory in the city of Zhengzhou, one of the largest manufacturers of Apple’s iPhone. After enduring weeks of stringent pandemic mitigation measures, workers protested and clashed with Chinese law enforcement. Videos of these confrontations, including shocking images of workers being beaten and kicked by officials in hazmat suits, were widely circulated on social media and in the press.”
Apple has also come under fire for reportedly making it harder for Chinese protesters to use Apple services to keep them from getting monitored and caught by the Chinese government.
“To make matters worse, your company appears to be actively supporting the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown,” Hawley wrote. “For example, public reports indicate that Apple, through a recent software update for iPhones in China, has modified the AirDrop function to make it more difficult for protestors to use this function to evade censorship and surveillance. Unconscionable though this decision may be, it is not surprising: under your leadership, Apple has time and again assisted the Chinese Communist Party in surveilling and suppressing the basic human rights of the Chinese people.”
The letter also comes after billionaire and Twitter CEO Elon Musk claimed that Apple had threatened to remove the Twitter app from the app store.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk tweeted Monday. “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why. Who else has Apple censored?”
Hawley echoed that sentiment in his letter to Cook.
“At the same time, it appears that Apple might be importing this model of speech control to the United States: reports indicate that your company might deplatform Twitter from the App Store as a consequence of the free speech policies implemented by new ownership,” Hawley wrote.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk said on Twitter that if Apple does stop Twitter from being available in the Apple App Store, Musk may pursue developing his own smart phone. Later, Musk and Cook had a meeting in which they cleared up the misunderstanding.
“Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
He also wrote, “This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”
Donald Trump Jr. noted, “There are more people on Twitter condemning @elonmusk for trying to prioritize free-speech then there are condemning China for trying to shut it down in an incredibly draconian fashion… and somehow it’s Elon & others who believe in freedom who are the fascists. Crazy times.”
Casey Harper is a Senior Reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today.
Job One with the new Legislature is the total repeal of Ballot Measure 2, the rewrite of Alaska election law in 2020. As it has been two years since the ballot initiative was passed, the Legislature can repeal it with a simple majority vote and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s signature.
While accurate today, neither he nor his majority have even asked the question, one that not only would the minority (albeit small) support, but the majority would at least be forced to discuss in public.
So, the job is to convince the new Legislature that their new Job One is to repeal the entire ballot initiative. In terms of energy expended, results achieved, this would far outweigh any effort at a repeal initiative. Though that initiative should be held as a promised response should the Legislature not do their job on this.
At the top level, Ballot Measure 2, which was sold during the campaign for its passage as a vehicle to eliminate so-called dark money from state politics, has been an abject failure, with over $9 million in Outside money spent by Sen. Mitch McConnell’s political action committee to reelect Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
A similar amount of Outside money was spent to defeat the constitutional convention. With that money, all of it dark, all of it Outside, all of it corrupting and overwhelming in-state campaign funding, the stated goal of Ballot Measure 2 was a miserable and complete failure. Not only did its passage not stop the Outside money, but the flow of that money increased to record levels.
None of this even touches on or discusses any of the other goodies tucked into the legislation, including ranked choice balloting, jungle primaries, and any number of disclosure provisions.
Happily, there are already proposals for repeal floating around. These have split into two approaches. One would repeal the entire mess (my preferred solution). The other would repeal pieces and leave the rest. I prefer the former, as it is simple, understandable, and can be done in two rather short sentences.
Why? The latter gets down into the weeds and allows Ballot Measure 2 backers to reprise the obstruct, distract, and lie routine used so well to campaign for its passage. Few Alaskans voted for Ballot Measure 2 because they wanted a jungle primary. Few voted for it because they wanted ranked choice voting. A lot of Alaskans voted for some sort of limit on dark money, which was the hook used by its backers to get voters to support the ballot measure in its entirety.
Response of the repeal crowd to this should be similar to what the Senate Bill 91 repeal supporters did a few years ago. In passing SB 91, we addressed what we thought was a problem. We tried to solve it. And the solution ended up creating worse problems than it solved. In short, the solution ended up being worse than the problem. Like SB 91, when something you try doesn’t work, repeal it, and try again.
There is already a piece of legislation floating around that wants to repeal a few chunks of Prop 2. It is a mere 33 pages long. This is a grievous and unforced error. On one hand, it acknowledges that the Alaska Supreme Court, which approved Ballot Measure 2, screwed up by approving a ballot initiative that had more than one topic. We don’t want to let them off that particular hook.
On the other, and more importantly, it intentionally muddies the water, opening an entirely new horizon for the backers of Ballot Measure 2 to obstruct, distract and lie about.
I could not think of a dumber thing to do.
If you want to repeal Ballot Measure 2, be honest and consistent with the voters. Say we tried something. It didn’t work. Here’s the proof. Let’s roll back to something that we know worked and start over again. That way we get what we want without insulting Ballot Measure 2 supporters. This has the extra added attraction of actually being true.
Want to repeal this? Keep the repeal very simple, and repeal the whole bloody mess. Roll back to a system that provided predictable results and allowed groups in Alaska to select their candidates. Doing it piecemeal simply invites backers of Ballot Measure 2 to do what they do best, quickly defeating our efforts with yet another wad of Outside money. And they are very good at that.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
Some $25 million of federal dollars will go to the villages of Napakiak and Newtok to help them move to higher ground, according to the Department of the Interior and the White House, which made the announcement at a tribal conference today.
It’s part of a $135 million effort to assist tribal communities across the country that are severely impacted by climate-related environmental threats.
Newtok and Napakiak have been in the process of moving for a few years. About 140 people now live across the river from the Newtok village site to Metarvik, which is on a higher bluff.
“Through investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, the Department is committing $115 million for 11 severely impacted Tribes to advance relocation efforts and adaptation planning. Additional support for relocation will be provided by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) and the Denali Commission,” the Biden administration announced, for a total of $135 million.
The administration said it recognizes climate change as a real and immediate threat, and “this program is one of the first designed to coordinate closely with community leaders to help begin the process of relocating crucial community infrastructure away from imminent threats and build long-term resilience to climate impacts. These projects will yield critical information to inform replication in other communities and initiate a long-term strategy for future relocation and climate resilience efforts.”
“As part of the federal government’s treaty and trust responsibility to protect Tribal sovereignty and revitalize tribal communities, we must safeguard Indian Country from the intensifying and unique impacts of climate change,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “Helping these communities move to safety on their homelands is one of the most important climate related investments we could make in Indian Country.”
“From wildfires out west to typhoons in Alaska, I have seen firsthand the devastating affect climate change and extreme weather has on communities across the nation, especially in Indian Country. That is why FEMA and the entire Biden-Harris administration take seriously our responsibility to provide tailored assistance to Tribal Nations before, during and after disasters,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. “While FEMA continues to help Tribal Nations plan for future conditions and strengthen tribal community resilience through our suite of hazard mitigation tools and resources, we are excited to partner with our federal family on larger projects such community-driven relocation to further support all Tribal Nations.”
“The Denali Commission (Commission) commends the Biden-Harris administration in recognizing the climate adaptation needs of Alaska Native Villages with the significant announcement of the demonstration project,” said Garrett Boyle, Federal Co-Chair of the Commission. “The Commission commits its support for this effort and the participating Alaska Native Villages. This effort comes at a pivotal moment of need for the Villages and the environment and builds on the Commission’s previous investments of nearly $50 million for strategic climate adaptation and resilience efforts.”
The announcement was made during the 2022 White House Tribal Nations Summit, which is where the Administration and Tribal leaders from the 574 federally recognized Tribes to discuss ways the federal government can invest in and strengthen nation-to-nation relationships as well as ensure that progress in Indian Country endures for years to come. That conference concludes on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Alaska Native villages are at risk of severe infrastructure damage due to climate-related environmental impacts, including sea-level rise, coastal erosion and extreme weather events, the administration said. Tribal communities in the contiguous 48 states are at risk of similar threats plus threats from flooding, drought and wildland fire. A 2020 BIA study estimated that up to $5 billion will be needed over the next 50 years to address tribal relocation infrastructure needs in response to climate change impacts.
The investments will support two types of grants: relocation grants for severely impacted communities currently ready to implement relocation and managed retreat plans, and planning grants for communities that need additional planning support in evaluating climate threats and mitigation strategies.
Relocation Grants
The Newtok Village and Native Village of Napakiak, both in Alaska, as well as the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington were selected to receive $25 million each to begin community driven relocation, for a total of $75 million in funding.
As mentioned earlier in this story, the process is well underway in both Newtok and Napakiak, although that is not included in the White House narrative. The photo above shows the new homes built at Metarvik, across the river from Newtok.
“The initial steps for these communities will serve as demonstration projects for future climate resilience efforts by providing early learning opportunities for best practices, developing standard guidelines and tools to serve as a blueprint for future efforts, and demonstrating the success of a consolidated and coordinated interagency approach to relocation and managed retreat,” the White House said.
The demonstration projects will focus on the relocation and establishment of core infrastructure identified by the communities to create a center of gravity for full community relocation. Community relocation will be a staged process that will occur in the coming years, the administration said, again ignoring the work that has been underway for years.
In addition to the Interior Department’s dedicated funds, FEMA has awarded, or is in the process of awarding, approximately $17.7 million to assist the three communities in their efforts to acquire, demolish and build new infrastructure out of harm’s way.
The Newtok Village, located on the Ninglick River in Alaska, is experiencing progressive coastal erosion from ocean storms and degrading permafrost. Multiple erosion studies conclude that there is no cost-effective way to halt this process, and that the people of Newtok must relocate to a new site, the White House said in its statement. At the current rate of erosion of approximately 70 feet per year, the river is expected to threaten structures within two years and the village’s critical infrastructure within four years. Mertarvik is the site of the new village, located approximately nine miles across the Ninglick River from Newtok. The new village site has roads but only a handful of homes, the White House said.
In reality, about 200 people live in the Newtok village, and 140 of them have moved across the river already. Much work remains to be done, but what has been accomplished is significant, including the construction of a school on the Metarvik side.
The Native Village of Napakiak, located on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, is experiencing serious erosion that is threatening the school, fuel farm, water supply well, airport, homes and other critical infrastructure. Severe weather, storm surges and flooding are also major concerns. The ongoing erosion is estimated to be 25-50 feet per year. Most of the current critical infrastructure is expected to be destroyed by 2030. The village has comprehensive plans for managed retreat and relocation, but implementation has been delayed by lack of funding, the White House said.
The village does need more funding but has been moving buildings back away from the eroded bank over the past few summers.
Both villages have limited seasons to do construction, due to the cold climate.
The Quinault Indian Nation, located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, seeks to relocate its Taholah Village. Taholah lies at the confluence of the Quinault River and Pacific Ocean, and is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, storm surges, and river flooding. The village also faces tsunami hazards from the more frequent distant earthquakes on the Pacific rim and the more destructive local tsunamis caused by earthquakes near the western coast of the United States. The tribe identified an area at higher elevation for relocation. Efforts have been made to begin the relocation process, but the lack of funding has made relocation a piecemeal process.
In December, the federal government will begin a community-driven 120-day planning period that will include the Interior Department and partnering federal agencies traveling to the three communities to establish formal relationships and begin the planning process with discussions on:
the communities’ goals and needs;
the roles and responsibilities of the communities and Federal agencies;
the project scope and components;
timelines, funding, and budget; and
risk identification and management.
Planning Grants
Eight additional communities that need further planning support to reach decisions and prepare for relocation or increased climate resilience measures will receive $5 million, for a total of $40 million. These communities face significant and widely varied climate risks, including coastal and riverine erosion, permafrost degradation, wildfire, flooding, food insecurity, sea level rise, hurricane impacts, potential levee failure and drought.
Planning grants of $5 million each are being awarded to:
Native Village of Point Lay (Alaska);
Huslia Village (Alaska);
Native Village of Fort Yukon (Alaska);
Native Village of Nelson Lagoon (Alaska);
Havasupai Tribe (Arizona);
Yurok Tribe (California);
Chitimacha Tribe (Louisiana); and
Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe (Maine).
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a total of $466 million in taxpayer funds to the BIA over five years, including $216 million for climate resilience programs, provided as $43.2 million annually for five years. Of that funding, $130 million is provided for community relocation and $86 million is provided for Tribal climate resilience and adaptation projects.
The Inflation Reduction Act provides BIA with an additional $220 million for climate adaptation and resilience, of which the Department anticipates spending $40 million to support Voluntary Community-Driven Relocation efforts, with the remainder supporting broader Tribal climate resilience activities.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday on an agreement between rail companies and workers to head off a strike that could have major economic consequences across the nation, including Alaska, due to the 49th state’s dependency on the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma for freight, much of which comes by rail.
Lawmakers voted 290 to 137 in favor of the deal between unions and rail companies that includes $5,000 pay increases. Now, the Senate will take up the issue.
Congresswoman Mary Peltola of Alaska voted against the agreement because she wanted more sick days for union rail workers. The vast majority of Democrats voted for the agreement, along with 79 Republicans. Eight Democrats voted with 129 Republicans against the agreement, but in the case of Peltola, it was because the deal wasn’t good enough for rail workers. Rail workers need more sick leave days, she said.
In a separate vote, House Democrats and a handful of Republicans voted to increase the number of sick days for employees to seven.
The deal appearing before Congress came in response to a threatened Dec. 9 strike, which could cripple the already struggling economy.
“I’m grateful to Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and bipartisan House members for acting to prevent a rail shutdown, making clear it would devastate our economy and families everywhere,” said President Joe Biden. “But without more action, supply chain disruptions will begin. The Senate must urgently send a bill to my desk.”
In spite of his appeal to the Senate, some lawmakers in the upper body don’t like the precedent that such an action sets, having government inserting itself into labor contract negotiations.
The Biden Administration had negotiated a tentative agreement with the unions in September that included $5,000 bonuses for workers. But four of the 12 unions rejected the deal and put the strike back on the calendar if no agreement is reached by Dec. 9. Now, Biden wants Congress to ratify his September agreement with no amendments to avoid a strike.
The Biden deal includes an historic 24% pay raise for rail workers. It provides improved health care benefits. And it provides the ability of operating craft workers to take unscheduled leave for medical needs, Biden said. That was not good enough for Alaska Congresswoman Peltola.
Alaska Railroad workers are unionized but not a part of the agreement being haggled over.
The Association of American Railroads reports that a strike would cost $2 billion per day and cause immediate harm to every sector of the economy served by rail. About 7,000 trains per day would be idled and that would “trigger retail product shortages, widespread manufacturing shutdowns, job losses and disruptions to hundreds of thousands of passenger rail customers.”
Rail accounts for about 28% of all freight in the United States.
The North Star Elementary School in Kodiak was evacuated Wednesday morning after Kodiak police were notified of a suspicious package left outside the school. A shelter-in-place order was made by school officials, and students were then transported to the Bayside Fire Department shortly after 10:15 am; parents were notified to pick up their children. Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, and the Kodiak Police Department responded to the school and secured the area.
It turns out it was an empty wooden box.
“Upon further investigation, the suspicious item was determined to be an empty wooden box. Law enforcement has identified and spoken with the individual that placed the empty wooden box at the school. Troopers learned that the individual located the box while running on a roadway near the school and placed the empty box near the entrance after believing that it belonged to a student or staff member at the school. The Alaska State Troopers would like to thank the Kodiak Police Department, US Coast Guard Investigative Service, and FBI for their assistance with the response and investigation. We appreciate the Kodiak community’s patience and assistance with the investigation and response to this incident,” the Department of Public Safety said in an update.
“We would like to thank the North Star families and staff for their response and patience today,” Kodiak Police Department announced on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon.
In unrelated “suspicious package in Kodiak” news, a Kodiak man was arrested Tuesday after a package containing more than a half-million dollars worth of illegal drugs was sent to him, according to the Alaska Bureau of Investigation.
Kalani Coyle, 30, of Kodiak was charged with second- and third-degree misconduct involving controlled substances, including 912 grams of methamphetamine, 56 grams of cocaine, and 5,550 fentanyl pills.
Involved in the investigation and arrest were Kodiak’s Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit, the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspector Service.
The Kodiak Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit is made up of members from the Alaska State Troopers, United States Coast Guard Investigative Service, and Kodiak Police Department.
The Trooper dispatch reportsaid that investigators noticed the package on Nov. 21, and that it was destined for a “known target.”
The value of drugs seized if sold in Kodiak is approximately $543,000.
A lightly edited version of Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s speech on the Senate floor regarding the religious liberties that are endangered by the Respect for Marriage Act, compliments of editors at The Heritage Foundation’sThe Daily Signal:
Madame President, today, as popular winds blow against the man and woman of faith, we should look to the Constitution and remember that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. We do a disservice to all Americans if we elevate the rights of one group at the expense of another.
On the one hand, there’s no existing threat to same-sex marriage. It is and will remain legal nationwide regardless of the outcome of this legislation before us, the Respect for Marriage Act.
On the other hand, we have current, real, sustained ongoing assaults on religious freedom. How we proceed today will do nothing to the status quo of same-sex marriage in this country. It’s legal and will remain legal regardless of the outcome of this legislation.
It will, however, if enacted, have profound consequences for people of faith.
In the wake of the Dobbs decision, proponents of this legislation have conjured up a series of hypothetical scenarios resulting in an imagined threat to the ability of same-sex couples to marry and enjoy the privileges of marriage. The rhetorical slippery slope goes something like this. First, they claim that some unknown, unnamed state is on the verge of passing an unknown, yet to be proposed or imagined law prohibiting same-sex marriage. Next, they imagine that federal district courts will uphold this hypothetical state law despite the crystal-clear direction within the Dobbs and Obergefell opinions from the Supreme Court. Should that adventure of unlikely hypotheticals transpire, they envision a case making its way all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States.
All of this, despite the lack of political will anywhere in the United States to prohibit same-sex marriage. Should that happen, proponents of this bill contend that there is a non-zero chance that one justice could decide to analyze the right to marry, not through the prism of substantive due process, as it has been since Obergefell was decided in 2015, but rather through the lens of the 14th Amendment’s privileges or immunities clause.
Proponents of the bill cite a single line within Justice [Clarence] Thomas’ concurring opinion and suggests that one justice could effectively destroy legal recognition of same-sex marriage, not just prospectively, but undoing currently legal same-sex marriage.
Now, this, Madame President, is a complete fantasy.
I’m not aware of a single state in the United States threatening to pass any law infringing the ability of any same-sex couples to marry or enjoy privileges associated with marriage, nor am I aware of a single state threatening to invalidate, within their borders, marriages entered into in other states, nor is it at all clear that Justice Thomas himself was suggesting that Obergefell be overturned.
He was suggesting that it be analyzed, like all substantive due process jurisprudence, to figure out whether there might be another provision of the Constitution under which it might be more appropriate. They were attributing to him statements he didn’t make, they were attributing to him analysis he didn’t even undertake in that one statement regarding the doctrine of stare decisis, and then they were attributing to state’s intentions they do not have and have not expressed.
My colleagues have yet to offer even a single example of a same-sex marriage threatened by any current or pending state legislation, not one, not a single one, and they intentionally misinterpret Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion in Dobbs and claim that the sky is falling, but it’s just not happening.
Unfortunately, we are aware of case after case where individuals, charities, small businesses, religious schools, and religious institutions are being hauled into courts to defend themselves for living out their faith. These people are not committing hate crimes against their neighbors. No, they’re not abusing peers for their personal choices either. No, they’re being hauled into courts across this country for serving the poor, the needy, and the refugee in compliance with their sincerely-held religious beliefs.
The Anchorage School District is trying to fill its self-inflicted $68 million budget hole by “closing” six neighborhood schools. But only one school will be closed.
Five of the schools will be actually “repurposed” for other functions; two will be used to house enlarged pre-K programs.
The district has held town halls in the six schools to get feedback from parents and community members. Resistance to closing the schools has been strong.
Most of those opposed to the changes of their schools love their neighborhood school because it is the center of their community. They voiced the same reasons that rural community members do.
Interestingly, at five of the town halls no one mentioned how well their kids were learning or how great the school was in improving student achievement. Apparently, parents were not informed how poorly their kids were doing in basic math and reading at these five schools.
However, parents at the proposed closing of Birchwood ABC school voiced strong support for its curriculum which includes Saxon math and Spalding language arts programs. These parents also said how well their kids were achieving.
Birchwood ABC is one of the schools the district wants to repurpose and move its students to Homestead Elementary School. It makes one wonder if ASD just doesn’t want non-Common Core schools that do well.
Here are the latest scores for the State’s STAR tests in the six “closed” schools for all grades:
Would the parents of those five other schools selected for “closure” still want to support those schools if they knew how poorly they were performing? Or would they want to keep their schools as community centers?
We know all parents want their children to be able to read and do math at grade level.
Note that the Birchwood ABC school is performing well above the average of the Anchorage School District in both English language arts and math. The Saxon math and Spalding language arts programs seem to be the reason for this exceptional performance.
Many of the parents who spoke at the Birchwood ABC town hall were either active-duty military or retired military. These parents have moved their kids usually every 3 to 4 years due to relocations and they know what a good school is.
Will the district learn a lesson from the Birchwood ABC school that its curriculum works? Or will these students just be moved to another under-performing school?
One Birchwood parent said that if they close this effective program, she will remove her kids from the district.
It would make more sense to move the Eagle Academy Charter School to the Birchwood ABC building and co-locate the Birchwood ABC program with it. They have similar curricula.
At every town hall, the district strongly encouraged parents and community members to contact their legislators to demand an increase in the Base Student Allocation (BSA).
But they did not ask parents to lobby for better test scores and accountability for dollars spent.
It’s hard to imagine why the district needs more money when the number of students has decreased by more than 5,000 in the last five years.
It seems the primary objective of the district is to activate parents of these “closed” schools to pressure the Legislature to further inflation-proof the BSA. Otherwise, their beloved neighborhood schools will be closed.
To follow its principle of full transparency, the district should also provide the STAR test results to all attendees at these town halls. Then parents will know how well their children are doing.
The school district should also inform parents of the STAR scores of the school they are transferring their students to. Will the performance of these students increase, stay the same or decrease?
And will the ABC curriculum at Birchwood disappear once its students are transferred to a “Common Core” curriculum school?
A school building is just that and nothing more. What happens in the classroom is what is most important. An effective classroom teacher and an effective curriculum are the keys to student success.
The Birchwood ABC school reflects that and is notable for its success.
David Boyle is the education writer for Must Read Alaska.
